2016 was an important year for sustainable urban development when the Habitat III conference on urbanisation adopted a 20-year strategy on sustainable cities called the New Urban Agenda. And now 2017 is shaping up to be the year that creative minds from around the world come up with innovative ideas to turn the 24-page document into reality through a new series of Urban Thinkers Campuses (UTCs).

Sponsored by UN-Habitat’s World Urban Campaign, UTCs are daylong or multi-day events that provide an open space for critical exchange and consensus-building between urban actors committed to sustainable urbanisation. 26 UTCs were held last year in the lead-up to the Habitat III conference, bringing together around 7,850 people from 124 countries.

Those events were so successful that UN-Habitat has put out a call for more such events in 2017. This focus this year will be on developing concrete action plans and road maps to implement the New Urban Agenda, according to a statement from the World Urban Campaign announcing UTC 2.0.

To date, 45 events in over three dozens countries are scheduled for 2017. Examples include: professors in the Netherlands developing lessons plans to teach the New Urban Agenda in universities, gender rights activists advocating for women’s access to urban services in Guatemala, Zimbabwe, Peru and Canada, and architects tackling slum upgrades in Dakar, reported Citiscope.

More events are likely to be announced. A second call for proposals to host a UTC is open until 10 February.